I Found Mold Growth – What Should I Do?

We just walked into the house and noticed that we had the start of a black stain, which appeared to be growing on the exterior wall of the kitchen.

As an aside to this single mold encounter, mold can grow in almost any space and on any surface. Mold requires moisture, normally warmth, and to make matters more inviting, a dark environment that will allow further stimulus of mold growth. In most instances, if mold was not present in the past, and appears without warning, there is normally an influx of moisture from a broken pipe or possibly extreme temperature differences, causing excessive condensation, or some other environmental change that raised the humidity of the area, causing it to become a mold growing environment.

What do we do now?

As stated, the most obvious reason for the growth of mold is the presence of moisture, warmth and darkness. As noted previously, if mold starts growing in an area that has not ever had mold before, something in the environment has changed.

If the mold is located in the bathroom or kitchen, then the lack of a proper exhaust fan or a broken pipe producing excessive moisture might be the cause for the sudden appearance of mold. Mold can appear in any part of the home; however, areas of water such as the kitchen, bathrooms or a moist basement are more prominent areas for mold growth.

Depending upon your ambition, treatment and further prevention of the mold can be a handy man special task. The use of the proper chemicals to wipe down and remove the mold will be the same procedure that an expert in mold removal will use. However, as has been previously noted within this website, the use of the professional to remove and prevent further mold issues, is the most efficient and effective procedure.

The most important aspect of treating mold is to find out why it appeared in the first place. To simply wipe down the mold without effectively eliminating the reasons and conditions that caused the mold growth in the first place, will not provide any long term solution.

Sometimes the best way to determine if this mold growth was merely a result of an environmental change in the moisture content of the air, and was a onetime occurrence, the simple removal and cleaning of the mold, one time, is a practical test. However if the mold returns, then the use of a professional is highly recommended.

In most situations, the call resulting in the fix will be the easiest and most reliable method for solving your mold issue. If you do decide to hire a professional, you might consider spending the few additional dollars for that professional to review all of the possible environmental issues that may be present within the home that could cause a mold issue. The professional may spot another situation that is ready to become an obvious mold problem in the near future.

REMEMBER, HIRING THE PROFESSIONAL IS NORMALLY THE EASIEST, AND MOST EFFICIENT METHOD OF SOLVING YOUR PROBLEMS AROUND THE HOME!